I've been flyfishing for 30 years. I live in Ohio and had never caught a trout. I was a bit of an oddity. People would want to come and watch me, take pictures, laugh, and generally see what I was doing. I've flyfished in CA, N. Car., FLA, NYC, N. Mex and others I forget. I took some tying lessons and tied flies that I didnt even know what they were for. I never caught a trout until this year when my buddie talked me into buying a PA lisence. Now I've travelled around in western PA and have seen the most beautiful streams there are and am totally hooked. I'll never buy another OH lisence. And I've found people like me on this forum. My buddie doesnt fly fish, so he cant really help with info. I created my own kind of Muddler Minnow and have caught trout, perch, smallies, northerns, bluegills, but mostly bass, which is what I'm used to in OH, but still havent learned how to catch brooks, and could still use a little help with all the trout. I caught my first bow on a Mickey Finn I tied, on my birthday! You people should be proud of your beautiful, rivers and streams, I am honored to be able to come here and fish with people that think like me, and am open for any advice.

Buck,You should hit one of the many brook trout streams PA has to offer. I usually just use a size 16 tan caddis. The brook trout love them. Stay low and work your way upstream. Brookies are very spooky.

1.stealth, stay low,low and lower. crawl, kneel and limbo your way to the stream.

2. work your way upstream.* brookies like sitting at the end of pools to feed so becareful

3. use a flashy olive bugger. brookies cannot resist this fly. while it is true that u can fish many dry flies on small waters and have great success, givem something that will catch there eye. i have spooked brookies and thrown this fly at them. sometimes they still hit it. any thing flash with lots of action. use a size 12 or it will be tough to hook them

4. work your way downstream? i put an * on #2 beacuse sometimes i break the cardinal rule and work may downstream. if the stream isnt to brushy and im using a bugger, ill throw a long cast down stream and stream the bugger through a few small pockets or riffles. cant spook them if your 30 yards away!

either way try some easy streamer fishing until u become more comfortable fishing for these timy spooky trout. then move on to something more technical. but dont leave the dries at home on your first trip! u never know. but what do i know, do what u feel comfortable doing....just my $.02.